Benjamin in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Choose an aspect of Benjamin's argument that you see as relevant for art and/or communication on the internet, and discuss. You may use one or more specific examples if you like. Write a page, print it out and bring it to class on Wednesday Sept 1.

Sampling

Create a text (words, video, image or sound) consists entirely of fragments of other texts. No more than 10% of your text can come from any single source text, and your text mustn't use more than 10% of any of your source texts.

Write two paragraphs about your text. The first paragraph should explain what you wanted to do, what you wanted to explore or say or discover by choosing the kinds of work you chose. The second paragraph should discuss how the project turned out, and whether you feel that it expresses that which you intended it to express.

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Lag et bilde, en verbal tekst, en video eller musikk/lyd som helt og fullt er sammensatt av andres tekster. Ikke mer enn 10% av teksten din skal stamme fra en enkelt tekst, og du må ikke ta mer enn 10% av en annen tekst. Skriv en litteraturliste over alle kildene dine.

Skriv to avsnitt om det du har laget: det første avsnittet skal forklare hva du ønsket å lage, hva poenget eller det samlende punktet var, og det andre avsnittet skal diskutere hvordan produktet ble, og hvorvidt du syns det uttrykker det som du mente å uttrykke.

Analyser en spam

Velg en spam, et kjedebrev eller en web hoax som har kommet din vei eller velg en hoax fra snopes.com eller Museumofhoaxes.com. Bruk søkemotorer for å finne ut det du kan om dens opphav og spredning. Er den suksessrik? Hvorfor/hvorfor ikke?

(Choose a spam, a chain letter or a web hoax that's come your way, or choose a hoax from snopes.com or Museumofhoaxes.com. Use search engines to find out as much you can about its origin and spreading. Is it successful? Why/why not?)

Design a contagious media project

Project due Thursday, September 23.

Find a classmate or two and imagine contagious media project. Write about a page describing it, including the following points:

1. Message (messages from the hoaxes you analysed included "Woman gave birth to frog", "They wear see-through skirts in Japan", "Bill Gates will give you lots of money")
   
2. What do you want people to do? (Believe it? Pass it on? Write letters to politicians? Demonstrate? Buy a product?)
   
3. How? Which medium(s) will you use? What kind of content? How will you hook people? (Some of the reasons people spread hoaxes that we came up with in class today might help, as might our list of possible mediums we talked about yesterday.)

Essay om nettverkspolitikkk

Choose one of these topics, and write a page-long essay about it to be handed in on Wednesday Sept 29.

1. Have you been involved in a political organisation or movement that used network organisation or smart mob tactics in any way? Describe the specific ways your movement used such methods, compare them to strategies discussed by Miller (PDF) and/or Rheingold (PDF), and if appropriate, discuss them in terms of memes and/or emergence. Discuss the success or lack of success of these tactics in your experience, and suggest possible causes.
2. Analyse the website of a politician or a political organisation, considering whether the website encourages networked or hierarchical involvement. Remember to describe, but not only to describe, include a screenshot if you talk about visual qualities, try to use theory we have read.

Tekstanalyseoppgave

Send this to me by email.

Skriv en kort tekstanalyse av en digital tekst. Du kan ikke skrive om alt ved verket, så velg ut et aspekt - hvordan fungerer interaksjonen? hvordan plasserer interaksjonen brukeren? hvordan representeres X? hvordan henvender teksten seg til mottageren? hvem er den implisitte mottageren? hvordan spiller teksten på andre sjangrer? Osv. Husk å tolke og ikke bare beskrive. Hva kan dette bety?
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Write a short textual analysis or close reading of a digital text. You won't be able to write about all aspects of the work, so choose a single aspect - how does the interaction work? how does this position the user? how is X represented? how does the text address the user? who is the implicit user/reader? how does the text use other genres? Etc. Remember to interpret and don't simply describe. What could this mean?

Suggested texts:
Gavin Inglis: Same Day Test
Olia Lialina: My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (se særlig 1996-utgaven)
Caitlin Fisher: These Waves of Girls
Tor Åge Bringsværd: Faen. Nå har de senket takhøyden igjen (papirutgave i kompendiet)

Describe your main project

This week is the week for working out what you'd like your longer paper to be this semester. You can either extend one of the projects or essays you've already worked on, or you can choose a new project that interests you particularly. You might write a textual analysis of a website, game or work of digital art or literature. You might write a discussion of network politics, based on an analysis of a selection of websites. You might choose to complete one of the practical projects, continuing work on the sampling or the hoax you've outlined. Perhaps you have other ideas?

The product is supposed to be a ten page essay - double spaced. You can present this digitally if you like. If your project is practical, you'll have to write a report as well as hand in the practical project. Are you wondering how much work I expect, how to know how much work to put into it if it's not presented as a traditional ten page essay? Well, if this was a take home exam you'd have a week to complete it in and we'd be expecting you to work intensively during that week.

Send me an email by Wednesday this week outlining your ideas - if you're not sure yet, tell me what kinds of things you might want to do, and we'll work on it. By the end of this week you should know what your project's going to be, and preferably have written at least a page describing it.

Games and narrative

Due October 27. Bring three copies to class.

Choose one:

1. How does the game-like quality of Bookchin's The Intruder affect the meaning of the story?


2. In The Gaming Situation, Markku Eskelinen argues that narrative and gaming are incompatible: "If I throw a ball at you I don't expect you to drop it and wait until it starts telling stories". Discuss this
   using Bookchin's The Intruder as an example.

Social software assignment

Due November 10 - email to Jill.

Use an online social networking system for a few days. Possibilities include surfing tools like Stumbleupon, Del.icio.us og Furl, or the purer social networks like Friendster or Orkut. Discuss your experiences in light of either Foucault's work on authorship and/or surveillance or Sadie Plant's work on cyberfeminism.
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Bruk et sosialt, kollaborativt surferedskap i noen dager. Muligheter inkluderer Stumbleupon, Del.icio.us og Furl, eller reine sosiale nettverk som Friendster or Orkut eller norske Blink eller SprayDate. Skriv en side eller to der du diskuterer dine erfaringer med systemet du valgte i lys av en av (eller begge) Foucaults artikler, eller Sadie Plant's artikkel.

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